Should I (r)aid0 2x160GB or get a raptor...

[KevC]

My Baracuda IV died on me. At least according to my mom that's what happened. It gives me a chance to upgrade...

I was thinking... get a 36GB Raptor for my main drive, have a 160GB drive for storage and that's that.

But I've never tried raid before, so I wanna dive in. Should I go 2x160GB SATA instead? Thing is... I hear the Sil3114 controller onboard the board I am planning to get is pretty bad. Im starting to record a lot of shows, so maybe striping would be good for me. At least the space would be.

320GB sounds sweet enough :) I could just partition it right...

Hey... I was just thinking, the board Im getting has 4 SATA controllers. Hm... 1x36GB Raptor... 2x160GB striped? That'd be sweet.... a little overkill.

Anyway I think I could only afford 2 drives now. Get 2x160GB? or 1 raptor, 1 160GB? Then get another 160GB later... but wont they be too different to raid? Or is it not that picky like dual channel ram?

[mhenley]

personally, I'd go for the 2x160's and stripe them. to my knowledge, hard drives have to be identical to RAID them. and if you have data on the drives, the configuring of the raid could damage that data...so, if you're going for one, might as well start with it.

[Ice Czar]

the Raptor
you have NO need for 360GBs of at risk data storage
the vast majority of that data would be safer and just as accessible on single 5400rpm HDDs :p

use performance HDDs\arrays where they will benefit you, and use single HDDs or true redundant arrays to "store" data

why waste your money where its not doing you any good
and concurrently deny yourself the performance you seek?

[Emret]

Try to see if this deal is good in your area.. its a 80gb seatgate for $50


http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=747601



Get 2 of em and raid them to boost performance on windows/games/apps, then get a 160GB drive for storage

MY opinion is 2x 7200rpm 8mb cache drives on raid is better than a single raptor.. and almost same price or less if you find a good deal

[Ugly_Jim]

Ice Czar: are 5400 rpm drives more reliable than 7200 rpm ones? or are you just saying that they're cheaper and would suit his needs fine?

[oqvist]

Originally posted by Ugly_Jim
Ice Czar: are 5400 rpm drives more reliable than 7200 rpm ones? or are you just saying that they're cheaper and would suit his needs fine?

Cheaper and should be more reliable/run cooler as well as more silent. Excellent for storage when you don´t need super performance.

[Ice Czar]

well 5400rpm HDDs would certainly be cheaper, and cooler, but as for more reliable??

they are also not on the cutting edge of areal density
if it takes 2 HDDs to equal the needed capacity of 1 HDD
your dealing with that much more power and heat

the flip side of more smaller drives is seen in RAID arrays where the number of drives in a RAID 5 array increases its storage efficiency (capacity equaling the number of drives minus one if they are all the same size)

But I really mentioned 5400s to illustrate that the majority of the typical desktop users files dont need performance, pics, video, music, ect

for games your load times would be slower so if thats important....

the OS, Virtual Memory, applications, data the applications are manipulating those need performance

more than likely for a "typical" user 20GBs would suffice

and if you think of it that way
its just possible that if you price out some alternatives
you could find yourself with a 15k SCSI screamer (where its needed) and slow (comparitively) but reliable storage (possibly even redundant as in real RAID) for close to the same money

[EarthwormJim]

This is from personal experience, but I suggest you just stick with 1 160gb hard drive and don't even bother with RAIDing or going with a Raptor. I've owned two RAID 0 set ups, one was two 80gb's and the other was two Raptors, and I barely if ever noticed a big enough difference if any to warrent the expense. Pretty much the same thing with my current 15000rpm drive, so I think you're best off with a single 160gb 7200rpm drive. For gaming and desktop use, a standard 7200rpm drive is plenty fast.